Man Of Steele?

RNC Chairman Michael Steele is a man torn right down the middle. His moral compass seems to be pulling him one way (left in some people’s opinions), while the rest of the GOP is pulling him in the opposite direction.

Less than ten days after having to apologize for speaking his mind about Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele is recanting statements again. This time it came from an interview he did with the popular Men’s Magazine GQ. The interview was conducted by GQ’s Lisa DePaulo on February 24th, and was posted on-line Wednesday night. Steele called abortion an “individual choice” and opposed a constitutional ban on abortion during the interview. Here is the exchange:

“Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?” GQ’s Lisa DePaulo asked in the interview in his office.

“Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice,” he said, according to GQ’s transcript.

“You do?” he was asked.

“Yeah. Absolutely,” he said.

Steele does not dispute the transcript. He did however issue a statement on it yesterday:

“I am pro-life, always have been, always will be. I tried to present why I am pro-life while recognizing that my mother had a ‘choice’ before deciding to put me up for adoption,” he said, explaining his comments. “But the Republican Party is and will continue to be the party of life. I support our platform and its call for a Human Life Amendment.”

Chairman Steele, we already have a wuss in politics that goes whichever way the wind blows, his name is Joe Lieberman. Show some guts and stick to your guns. If you believe something, tell us you believe it and why. Most importantly, stand by what you believe after it comes out of your mouth.

There are a couple of disturbing things that have surfaced thanks to this story. For starters, the fact that what you truly believe doesn’t matter in GOP politics. Put away your moral compass, it will set off the metal detector at the RNC. This is further evidenced by Tony Perkins’ comment on the issue: “[Steele] assured me as chairman his views did not matter and that he would be upholding and promoting the party platform, which is very clear on these issues,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “It is very difficult to reconcile the GQ interview with the chairman’s pledge.”

Anyone notice anything wrong with that sentence? How about the part that reads “[Steele] assured me as chairman his views did not matter…”???

To make matters worse, check out the Republicans solution to this “problem.”

The president of the Susan B. Anthony List, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said she expected Steele to win back anti-abortion support by engaging in the public fight on “wedge issues” like Obama’s move to end the Mexico City Policy, which barred the use of federal dollars by foreign nonprofits that offered abortion counseling. “When you have an issue like that, you ought to be using it,” she said. So in a time of Economic Crisis and uncertainty, the GOP wants to focus on wedge issues. The same thing that got George W. Bush elected in 2004. AKA, Karl Rove‘s “God, Guns and Gays.”

Looks like Chairman Steele would’ve been best-suited to stick to his guns, because the GOP looks like they’ll be conducting business as usual for the foreseeable future.